1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a surgical towel or drape having an improved tab structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of adhesive strips on surgical towels is known to those of ordinary skill in the art. For example, Kelly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,887 discloses a "Surgical Drape with Adhesive on Top and Bottom" wherein the drape includes a tab located between an adhesive layer and a release layer. Kelly's invention, however, is fundamentally different from the towel of the present invention in that the tab is very long and runs the width of the drape. Other towels of interest are disclosed in the following patents: Hoff, U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,590; Mesek et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,840,013; Krebbs et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,497; Karami, U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,460; and Melges, U.S. Pat. No. 3,494,356.
Towels similar in structure to that of the present invention were previously made by hand. Tabs comprising small address-type labels were inserted manually between the release layer and one side of the double-backed adhesive tape layer. There are several disadvantages to this prior art method. First of all, being manual the method was labor intensive and therefore expensive. Second of all, the tab frequently overlapped the adhesive layer thereby consuming more tab stock than necessary. Thirdly, the registration between the tab and the adhesive tape layer was not as good as could be achieved by automated methods.
There are some machines known in the prior art which will insert a first material between two layers of a second material. For example, Wang, U.S. Pat. No. 2,995,174 discloses a method of inserting a clip between two layers of bag material. Van Cleff, U.S. Pat. No. 2,248,318 and Beck, U.S. Pat. No. 3,298,891 also disclose prior art machinery of interest. However, none of the prior art appears to disclose an automatic method for inserting a tab between the release layer and the adhesive layer of adhesive tape stock. In particular, none of the prior art appears to disclose a surgical drape or towel having tabs of the same proportions and materials as described in the present invention nor does the prior art appear to disclose an apparatus or method which would be suitable for making said tabbed towel.